Nonbinary teen Ander is ready to leave their family’s taquería and focus on their art, but when Santi, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, begins to work at the restaurant, the two teens spark a romance made complicated by immigration police.
In modern Mexico, Sitlali is all alone after the death of her beloved abuela. Targeted by a dangerous gang member, she flees to the United States. As a memento, she takes with her an ancient conch shell. In 1521, Calizto is trapped in the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. He has fought valiantly for his people against Spanish invaders, but hope is fading. Desperate, he takes up a sacred conch and sounds a plea to the gods. The conch holds magic neither understand. The magic allows them to communicate across centuries. With each conversation, they fall deeper in love. But as danger threatens, will they find a way to be truly together?
Richard Turere’s own story: Richard grew up in Kenya as a Maasai boy, herding his family’s cattle, which represented their wealth and livelihood. Richard’s challenge was to protect their cattle from the lions who prowled the night just outside the barrier of acacia branches that surrounded the farm’s boma, or stockade. Though not well-educated, 12-year-old Richard loved tinkering with electronics. Using salvaged components, spending $10, he surrounded the boma with blinking lights, and the system works; it keeps lions away. His invention, Lion Lights, is now used in Africa, Asia, and South America to protect farm animals from predators.
Featured in WOW Review Volume XVII, Issue 2.
A Picture Book Biography Of Ignacio (nacho) Anaya, A Waiter At The Victory Club In Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, And The Events Surrounding The Creation, In 1940, Of The Globally-popular Tortilla Chip, Cheese, And Jalapeño Pepper Snack That Bears His Name — Nachos.
Naomi Vargas is Mexican American. Wash Fuller is Black. These teens know the town’s divisive racism better than anyone. But sometimes the attraction between two people is so powerful it breaks through even the most entrenched color lines. And the consequences can be explosive. Naomi and Wash dare to defy the rules, and the New London school explosion serves as a ticking time bomb in the background. Can their love survive both prejudice and tragedy?
A young Dominican girl navigates middle school, her strict mother, shifting friendships, and her dream of being an artist.
When Maud hit puberty she lost her wild magic and her best friend, Odette, rejected her but now Odette has disappeared, her magic leading her down dark paths, and Maud knows that to rescue her former friend she will have to tread the same paths into a wild, dangerous world.
The resilience of two cousins is tested when one of them is lost at sea and washes up on a deserted island while the other remains at home, holding on to the belief that her beloved cousin is still alive.
Dounia is the story of a little girl who loves her home city of Aleppo, Syria, and its many smells, sights, and traditions. But when war breaks out, Dounia and her grandparents must flee Aleppo to find safety. Before they go, their neighbour reads their future in a cup of coffee, she sees a long difficult journey ahead of the family and a blue house awaiting them at the end. Taking only a bird carved from Aleppo soap and four little barake seeds in her pocket, Dounia faces dangerous waters, a camp surrounded by barbed wire, and unfriendly soldiers, and she wonders where she and her family belong in the world. Remembering the ancient knowledge that barake seeds ward off evil, she pulls one from her pocket to use for each of the threats they face. Magically, the seeds from their faraway home help them along their way, until they finally find the blue house at the end of their journey.
In her new home, Dounia plants her final seed in a pot so it can grow and offer more seeds, while also keeping a piece of Aleppo with her. The baraké seeds represent the Syrian culture. Although Dounia is fleeing her country, she carries with her the strength of her people. It is by tapping into her roots, represented by the seeds, that she finds her own strength and resilience. The magical moments brought about by the baraké seeds can be interpreted as Dounia’s imagination it’s a way of seeing the war and the migration from a six year old’s perspective. Dounia does not understand everything that is going on, but she is not a powerless victim. By using the seeds, she feels she is taking an active part in her own destiny. In the end, whether it is magic or Dounia’s imagination at play, it’s a story about obstacles faced by migrants and about the courage they have in facing these obstacles. As Marya puts it in her article for TBI Magazine, it reverses the common narrative in North American media that Syria is synonymous with devastation and destruction, and that Syrian refugees can only be victims of their circumstance, rather than brave, vibrant heroes who can take charge of their own stories.
In this poignant, empowering picture book debut, a girl and her beloved abuelita lean on each other as they contend with racism while running errands in the city.